HOUSING: Richard Nixon, Mortgagee

Shortly after President Nixon entered the
White House in 1969, he asked John Ehrlichman, then White House
counsel, to issue an 87-page pamphlet titled A Reference Booklet on
Conflict of Interest. The pamphlet advised all Cabinet members to
liquidate their investments and put the proceeds into blind trusts or
diversified mutual funds. "We don't want any whiff of questions," said
Ehrlichman. "No member of the Cabinet is going to know what he owns."

Unlike his subordinates, Nixon does know what he owns, notably the
Western White House in San Clemente and the Southern...